Room for growth in the pet care space, says Nestlé’s CEO

In a presentation during the Deutsche Bank Global Consumer Conference 2023 in Paris, Nestlé’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) François-Xavier Roger highlighted that the company’s pet care portfolio is “obviously a great opportunity for growth.”

Roger said that one of the firm’s main interests is emerging markets, where the calorific coverage—the commercial food a pet eats—still has the potential to grow. According to the company, in emerging countries, commercial pet food represents 41% compared to 79% of what pets eat in developed countries.

Nestlé’s CFO also noted the leverage of e-commerce in some countries like China. The Asian nation made up 25% of the multinational’s online sales in 2022, followed by Brazil at 11%.

The firm’s pet portfolio made up 19% of the company’s sales. The total sales for 2022 reached CHF 94.4 billion ($104.4B/€‎97.2B).

Investment 

Remy Ejel, Nestlé’s CEO for Asia, Oceania and Africa (AOA), shares how investing in the pet sector is an opportunity for the company.

He says the main strategic focus is “expansion and activating the right portfolio, building on the existing opportunity in Oceania and developing other opportunities in South East Asia.”

Ejel added that they expect the pet segment in the region to grow faster than average and represent 4% of their total sales.

Nestlé’s efforts in the region are focused on “accelerating growth in super premium dry food and to leverage a secure supply and local production capacity to seed and scale key markets.”

The multinational also sees opportunities to expand its pet food portfolio in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.